Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer Read online

  “Oh? How?” Ty asked. “Am I going to lose you to Janet Laskar?”

  Tommy paled. “No Sir, It’s just something I’ve always been able to do, I could always tell when someone was lying. I can’t read minds or anything like that.”

  Nodding Ty held up Albrecht’s fake credentials. “These are actually pretty close to what they’re supposed to look like. In fact, I’d say they are so close another agent might even miss the differences.” He pointed to the official seal,” You see here, on the seal? Some of the ink smudged because he didn’t wait long enough for it to dry before he put it in the case. Also, I recognized this character from an earlier attempt to breach the perimeter.”

  “Sir, one of them is a Ghost. Antimatter showed up on the scan,” the trooper said over the comm. “How do you want us to play this, everyone can see us out here.”

  “Do you know which one it is?” Ty asked.

  “No Sir, we didn’t want to risk a detonation, so we started with passive scans,” the trooper replied.

  “Well, shit,” Ty replied. “That complicates things. We can’t shoot them, we can’t let the sheriff take them, and we can’t keep them.”

  “Sir, why don’t we just go ahead and scan them? They’re in a containment field, we should be safe from the explosion,” Tommy suggested.

  “We need information, Tommy. Besides, the blast will blind anyone looking this way. It’s actually stronger than a nuclear detonation. The one that detonated up in Nevada measured about six kilotons. That may not seem like much, but antimatter is way nastier than a nuke would be,” Ty said.

  Tommy nodded his understanding, but approached the containment field with the men in it. He walked up to Albrecht, but remained outside the field.

  “Mr. Albrecht, I know this is going to sound really strange, but do you have any antimatter in your body or on your person?” Tommy asked seriously.

  Albrecht looked surprised for just a second, then glanced at the other man he could see before answering. “Anti-what? Son that shit only exists in comic books!”

  “Just yes or no please,” Tommy replied.

  “No,” Albrecht replied.

  “Thank you,” Tommy replied and turned back to Ty who had followed him. “He’s clean, if we pull him out of there, we’ll be able to question him.”

  “Yeah, but if the one who has the stuff figures out what we’re up to, I’d bet my salary he’ll detonate that little gadget,” Ty said. “If we lower the field to get him out, then we’ll all have a front row seat before the gates of hell.”

  Tommy nodded again, and turned back to Albrecht. “Mr. Albrecht, in about a minute, the temperature in there is going to reach ten thousand degrees in a very short amount of time. Unfortunately, there is no way we can get you out of there before that happens, so, is there anything you would like to tell us?”

  This time, Albrecht looked defeated. “Seventeen oh one Black feather lane...”

  Ty tackled Tommy and put his hand over the smaller man’s eyes, as the inside of the containment field flashed brighter than the sun.

  All over the compound, alarms began blaring out their warnings, but at the guard shack, soldiers were trying to put out what was left of Tommy’s burning clothes. Ty had been wearing armor, and he only got scorched on one of his hands and singed off some of the hair on his head. However, Tommy had been wearing nothing more than a guard uniform. Looking him over, Ty knew he had been hurt badly.

  “Medical emergency at the guard shack! We need a burn team down here ASAP!” Ty called over his comm. We also need some drones down here to clean up radioactive substances. Include holodrones to hide them.”

  The squad medic was already treating Tommy for the flash burns, and getting him ready to be moved to the hospital in the underground base. She looked concerned, but gave Ty a hopeful smile, which meant she thought Tommy would live.

  The containment field had done its job and contained the massive energy released by the antimatter detonation, but it couldn’t contain everything. If Tommy had been back further, he would have felt the heat and maybe gotten a sunburn, but otherwise would have been fine. As it was, both Ty and Tommy had been too close to the shield when the detonation occurred and they both had gotten seared by the blast.

  Of the men and the suburban that had been in the shield, there was nothing left but radioactive dust, and there wasn’t even much of that. The pavement had been burned away, and the sand under it had been blasted into a black glass.

  A medical team arrived and got Tommy; Ty was giving orders and directing the clean-up when the medic literally pushed him back into Tommy’s guard shack.

  “Ronson! I have things to do!” Ty complained.

  “Yeah?” she said. “You can get back to them once I get the bleeding under control, and some dressings on those burns. Now, shut up and sit down, Sir.” Ronson, the medic, replied.

  Ty hadn’t known he was bleeding, but the skin on his burnt hand had split open and he was indeed dripping blood all over the place. He grunted and sat down.

  “How’s Tommy going to be?” Ty asked.

  “He’ll live, and he’ll be uncomfortable while the skin regrows, but he’ll be good as new in a few days. “What the hell were you two doing that close to the edge of the shield, anyway?” Ronson asked.

  “Trying to get some information while we could,” Ty replied.

  “Did you get any?” she asked.

  “Well, we got something, I don’t know exactly what yet, but it was something,” Ty replied.

  “There, that should hold you for a while. Get down to medical as soon as time allows so they can get that fixed, otherwise, it’ll tighten up on you, and you’ll lose mobility in the hand,” Ronson instructed.

  Trying to move the bandaged hand, Ty gave her a look. “I can’t move it worth a damn now.”

  The woman nodded. “No, you can’t. If you want that to become permanent, then just ignore what I told you.”

  Ty grinned at her.” I thought medics were not supposed to be so bitchy?”

  “It comes from dealing with Marines; they won’t listen to me if I am nice about it,” Ronson replied. She picked up her pack, rifle, and left the guard shack.

  Ty chuckled at the medic’s antics before activating his comm. “Whaley! Report to the guard shack for duty!”

  “On my way, Boss!” the trooper named Whaley replied.

  Looking out the large window, Ty watched one of his troopers place orange road hazard cones around the now invisible area where the suburban had been. The containment field was still in place, but the drones could penetrate the field to do work. The holodrones he asked for made the whole operation invisible.

  F.S.S. Star Dancer.

  Selene Orbit, (Earth’s moon)

  Earth, Sol Sector.

  “It’s a good bet the Caldarians know what we’re really doing here. They had to be monitoring that team,” Ty finished.

  “Well, we knew it was only a matter of time,” Ian replied. ”You’re going to have to be more on your toes now, though. We have no idea how willing they are to maintain their cover. Especially with a Super Nova due to arrive.”

  Ty nodded agreement. “I agree, I would like permission to equip my folks with advanced weaponry. Earth weapons won’t even scratch the paint on a hover tank or Caldarian Armor.”

  Ian looked thoughtful. “Have you talked to Luke and Elias about it?”

  Luke nodded. “He has. We took it to the council and they agreed we should follow your lead on this,” he grinned. “Nothing like passing the buck.”

  Ian chuckled. “I would probably have done the same thing, Luke. After all, your primary mission down there is research, not defense. Okay, I would keep the normal patrols carrying Earth weapons in the case that a real government official shows up. But, I would have the heavy stuff on standby and equip your response teams with pulse rifles. You’re already using shields on the land rails right?”

  Ty nodded. “I thought it would be safe to do so, considerin
g the distances involved. An enemy shooting at us couldn’t really see that he hadn’t actually missed.”

  Ian nodded. “Understandable. However, I think you should make sure your teams have armor now. Like I said, keep the patrols looking like regular guards, but your response teams should be decked out and fully protected.”

  “Thanks, after what happened to Tommy, that’ll make me feel a whole lot better.” Ty replied. “Even though he wouldn’t have been wearing armor anyway, it’s the thought that counts.”

  “What do you folks have for anti-air and ground assault batteries? Have you added anything?” Ian asked.

  “No, we haven’t added anything, but considering the news about the Super Nova, I would like to see more down here,” Luke replied. “We’ve heard about a new weapon system you’ve developed; we’d like to get a couple of those down here, too.”

  “The Eggheads had me build a few new buildings out past the power unit. We’ve only got shields out there. I did integrate shield generators into the building designs as well so those buildings will have their own shields in addition to the main shield. We’re working on a retro-fit kit for the rest of the existing buildings. Residences and high traffic areas are going to be the hardest to equip,” Elias said, proudly. “But, we’ll get it. I swear, these architects are like kids in a candy store with all the new materials and construction methods now available to them.”

  Ian nodded. “Yeah, and I’m sure you’re not overly excited with finally being able to use the drones either!” he teased. “I’ll authorize the release of the station variant of the mass driver design to you. If you want more protection down there, at least in the form of weapons platforms, feel free to put them in, just make sure they are not visible unless being used. We really don’t want to draw unwanted attention after all.”

  “We’ll get right on it, Old Son,” Elias said. “How are the little ones doing? Laura really wants you to come visit!”

  “They are healthy and growing like weeds. If it weren’t for the other ladies, Cindy would be going insane though. It’s like one goes to sleep and the other wakes up, it’s almost creepy,” Ian replied.

  “That’s just babies; they all have that ability,” Luke said, chuckling. “You’ll get used to it.”

  Ian nodded. “...or I’ll have a psychotic break!”

  Everyone chuckled over that. “Okay gentlemen, I’ll let you go. I’ve a pretty full day up here. We’re testing a couple new fighter designs. Luke, did you get the report about the proposed dry dock facility for Mars?”

  “Yes, I did. I’m all for it, but where are you going to get the people to man it? If we keep drawing on the population this hard, someone is bound to notice,” Luke said.

  “Janet is expanding her overseas operations. When she gets finished, over half of our new people will not be from the United States. We have a few folks from other countries already, but very soon, there will be a lot more. So, I would suggest you all brush up on Talosian, because that’s going to be the common language, not English.” Ian explained.

  “Has there been any friction between the different nation’s peoples? Elias asked.

  “Not really, but there has been some heated words between Americans and those from non-allied countries. The surprising thing is, that the folks that have combat experience seem to be the least likely to start trouble. In fact, two of our pilots discovered that one actually shot the other one down over Iraq. They laughed and talked it out. They’re wing mates now,” Ian said.

  “So who’s giving you the trouble?” Luke asked.

  “The non-combat veterans and former citizens that were of a patriotic mind, I would imagine,” Ty said. “It’s more of a societal bias than a combat one; although, I’m sure there will be combat ones as well. Those are the ones you’ll need to be most worried about. Former enemies that either witnessed some atrocity, or were in very heavy fighting and lost a lot of friends will be the worst. They will try to kill each other.”

  Ian nodded. “Yeah, I kind of figured that was the case. We’ll just have to keep an eye on them and try to either keep them separated, or get them to work through the issues.” He shrugged.

  Ty chuckled. “Good luck with that.”

  “Take care, you guys,” Ian said. He closed the comm channel once the other men said their good-byes.

  So, the Caldarians at least suspected that Talos was actually a front for their old enemy on Earth. The fact that they had tried to get one of their ghost agents into the community was troubling. Ian packaged up Ty’s report, as well as a note authorizing the release of the mass driver designs for use at Talos, and shipped it off to the Intelligence and Operations departments to be handled.

  When Ian arrived at flight control, he found the same crew as the last flight test. This time however, there would be two Hornets flying escort from the start of the test to the finish. There would also be an ESAR unit already launched and waiting just outside the ship.

  “Commander on Deck!” Someone yelled and everyone not involved in something critical stood.

  Ian shook his head. “As you were!” He walked over to the area where Brittany and the flight operations chief, John Harris, were standing and said, “Well, this looks familiar! How are you Doctor Benson?”

  “I’m good, Sir, thank you for asking. How are Cindy and the kids?” Brittany asked.

  “Doing very well. Cindy will be released for duty in about three weeks, and the babies are growing like crazy and healthy as oxen,” Ian replied. “What have you got for us today?”

  “Alpha flight test for a Shadow Fighter, I’m still having issues with the power systems on the Wasp. I may have to see if I can adapt a shadow fighter engine for it,” Brittany explained.

  “They got a Shadow finished already? I thought that was still a couple of weeks out?” Ian asked.

  “Originally it would have been, but we all focused on it once we learned of the Super Nova. Really, once the power systems issues were solved, it all became a simple issue of programming and fitting it all together into a workable design, Kyle and Tara are can be really scary sometimes. It was like they linked brains to get this finished so quickly,” Brittany explained. “Even Stephanie’s thought assisted flight controls are installed. Tinker has spent the last three days studying hard to learn the systems so she could fly this.”

  “Tinker’s flying again?” Ian asked.

  John answered this time. “She’s the best test pilot we have, Ian. Especially for Alpha tests. She is also training others, but she will most likely always be the best.”

  Ian nodded agreement, “I would imagine so; she certainly has an impressive resume that would be hard to beat.

  John nodded agreement. “At this point I think she might the best person to do the testing. I do know she handed off the Wasp testing to another pilot; one of her more promising trainees.”

  Ian nodded and toggled the comm at one of the stations. “Good morning, Tinker, how are you today?”

  “Pretty good boss, I’m looking forward to seeing what this bird is capable of. The design specs are impressive as hell. I do have to admit, having the fighter tuned to me was a trip,” Tinker said. “Hell, the power systems alone are completely innovative – we have nothing like them anywhere else.”

  “I don’t remember reading about that, I’ll have Dr. Benson brief me while you finish getting ready to impress the hell out of us again,” Ian replied.

  He heard her chuckle. “If ejecting out of a test bed impresses you, I have a whole bag of tricks you haven’t seen yet!” Tinker replied.

  Ian grinned and turned back to Jon and Brittany. “So, Doc, what’s so special about the power systems?”

  “Well, in light of the issues we had with the Wasp prototype power systems, Kyle and I acted on a suggestion made by Alma Punjab. The Shadow has a completely new, cool plasma power system utilizing zero-point energy modules. The power system acts in a form of synchronicity with the armor and should make the power issues much easier to contai
n and control,” Brittany explained.

  “What systems did you have to sacrifice in order to use this system? From what little bit I know of Zero Point energy Module (ZPM), it doesn’t generate that much power,” John asked.

  “That’s the beauty of this system. We didn’t have to lose anything! With the armor and the ZPM working in unison, there’s plenty of power, even for the jump engine. There is no need for a plasma cooling unit that the hornet and the wasp employ to cool the plasma because it’s already cool when it exits the vector ports!” Brittany said.

  “Amazing, I’m actually looking forward to seeing how this thing works,” Ian said, grinning at her enthusiasm.

  “Star Dancer Flight Control, this is Shadow X-One-Beta, we are ready to begin,” Tinker replied.

  John nodded to the primary flight controller, and he activated his comm. “Attention all units. Test flight protocol is now active. Launch escort and recovery teams. Ballista Flight, pick-up Shadow X-One-Beta at the moon base launch. Report when on station.”

  “Understood, Control. Ballista flight is outta here!” a male voice replied as one of the launch tubes down on the floor suddenly changed from yellow to red, indicating a launch in progress. Further forward in the landing bay, a craft that looked like a small shuttle lifted off the floor, and moved quickly toward the curtain covering the landing bay exit into space.

  “ESAR Two-One launching. I hope you won’t need us today. Good luck, Tinker.” The female voice of the ESAR pilot was heard.

  “I appreciate that, ESAR. It’s good to know you’ve got my back. Just so you know, a spacewalk is not a scheduled part of today’s test,” Tinker replied.

  “Ballista flight on station. Ready to begin.” The flight leader called.

  “Stand by, Bruno,” The flight controller replied.

  “SAR team is in position. We’re ready here too, Control.”

  “Thank you, Shadow X-One-Beta, you may launch when ready,” the controller said.

  “Pre-flight checklist is complete. All monitors are active and running. SX-One-Beta is launching,” Tinker said over the comm.